Fiat Industrial and CNH Global to combine businesses

Fiat Industrial S.p.A. and CNH Global N.V. announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine the businesses of Fiat Industrial and CNH. The terms of the definitive merger agreement are consistent with Fiat Industrial's final offer announced Nov. 19. The terms provide that Fiat Industrial and CNH will each merge into a newly-formed company organized under the laws of the Netherlands (NewCo). Fiat Industrial shareholders will receive one NewCo share for each Fiat Industrial share and CNH shareholders will receive 3.828 NewCo shares for each CNH share in the merger.

Pursuant to the definitive merger agreement, CNH would pay a cash dividend of $10 per CNH share to the CNH minority shareholders prior to completion of the merger. CNH will use its reasonable best efforts for the dividend to be paid prior to Dec. 31, or as promptly thereafter as practicable. The cash dividend, when added to the 3.828 NewCo common shares for each CNH share, represented a 25.6 percent premium over the implied value of Fiat Industrial's initial offer as of Nov. 16, the trading day prior to the date on which Fiat Industrial's final offer was announced. In addition, CNH minority shareholders will benefit from the dividend being paid prior to completion of the merger.

The NewCo shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. NewCo will also use its reasonable best efforts to cause the NewCo shares to be admitted to listing on the Mercato Telematico Azionario managed by Borsa Italiana shortly following the closing of the mergers.

NewCo will implement a loyalty voting structure; shareholders of each company that are present or represented by proxy at the respective shareholders' meetings to consider the merger transaction and that continue to hold their shares until completion of the merger may elect to receive common shares registered in a special segment of NewCo's share register and be entitled to two votes per share. NewCo shareholders will be entitled to retain double-vote shares indefinitely. If a NewCo shareholder transfers shares entitled to double votes, the shares will revert to the regular segment of the register and will be entitled to a single vote per share. Following completion of the merger, new shareholders may earn a double vote through a loyalty mechanism by holding the shares continuously for at least three years.

Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Industrial's chairman, said, "We are pleased to have reached agreement on the basis of Fiat Industrial's improved proposal for the merger. Completion of this merger will bring to a conclusion a lengthy process of simplifying and rationalizing the Group's equity capital structure and allow shareholders in both companies the opportunity to participate in the growth prospects of the world's third largest capital goods provider, which will be a true peer in scale and capital markets appeal to the other major global capital goods companies. This appeal will be further enhanced through the loyalty share structure intended to reward long-term stable shareholders that share our goal of enhancing shareholder value over the long term, as well as through enhanced flexibility to pursue strategic opportunities."

The merger agreement contains customary representations and warranties and the merger is subject to customary closing conditions, including a condition capping the exercise of withdrawal rights by Fiat Industrial shareholders and opposition rights by Fiat Industrial creditors, at EUR 325 million in the aggregate. The merger is also subject to approval by the shareholders of each of Fiat Industrial and CNH. Fiat Industrial, as 88 percent shareholder of CNH, has agreed to vote its CNH shares in favor of the merger at the CNH shareholders' meeting. The merger is expected to close during the second quarter of 2013.

The Special Committee of the CNH Board engaged J.P. Morgan and Lazard as its financial advisors and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek N.V., and Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, as its legal advisors.